Several weeks ago, I announced the selections for September & October. I also promised to fill you in on the last 2 selections in a few days. Well, it is 3+ weeks later and I’m just getting to it. It has been an incredibly painful few weeks (here and here), so I know you’ll forgive me.

November isDahlia Bakery Cookbook. Keeping it local peeps. Tom Douglas is ubiquitous in Seattle. The man, and his restaurants, are everywhere. I haven’t been to them all (who can keep up?), but everywhere I have tried has been fantastic. I wanted to dig into his bakery cookbook for 2 reason: legendary Coconut Cream Pie and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies. I honestly don’t even care what else is in the cookbook, because if I can rock out tho I’ll be a very happy person.

But it isn’t all pie and cookies. The book covers breakfast/brunch items, cakes, pastries, tarts, english muffins (something the Babylady has recently expressed an interest in making), and more. (Heads up: also includes his equally famous donuts and his tomato soup.)

Briggs and I thought November would be a great month for hitting a bakery cookbook with all the opportunities for baked goodness during November and December. What will be your favorite? We can’t wait to find out!

December we will checking out The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making. You already know that both Briggs and I like to push ourselves to grow a lot of edibles (!), preserve, and create food from scratch. In fact, we both started blogging because of an interest in preserving. We started with the Can Jamas a push to further our DIY-ways. Including a book that was DIY-focused seemed natural.

So many of you already prepare meals regularly that don’t use boxes, cans, or “convienence” items. Perhaps you regularly preserve what is in season for use year-round. This book will cover things that you might still purchase from the store that you could easily make at home. Let’s face it: we all have different ideas of what makes something worth making yourself. Taste? Cost? Ease of making? Time? General interest? Availability? Ingredients? It all plays into the equation. For me, I know there are things I could make. Things I wish I were inclined to make, but I won’t for a variety of reasons. But, there are other things that I know for certain would be simple to make. Things that would be cheaper, tastier, and healthier if I made it myself.

So, Cook the Bookers! That will round out the 2013 Cook the Books Challenge! We are looking forward to seeing what you discover the rest of the year. Please send your August post entries to cookthebookschallenge@gmail.com as soon as you can— by Friday, August 30th if you can.